Building Confidence


Volume 22 Issue 6
ISSN 1923-7162


Welcome to Dave's Shop Talk's Home Improvement Newsletter of questions from our members on their construction projects, a Tip of the Month and a home remodeling article, both from our website at http://daveosborne.com.

Tip of the Month

To save money in a home renovation, choose standard size windows and doors rather than custom sizes. Ref: Seasonal 1: Fall.

And a Bonus Tip:

Be sure to check the required rough opening sizes of your windows with your salesperson to be sure they will fit you particular window openings. Ref: Upholstery 1: Upholstery Answers.

Ask Dave!

Dave, Our company contests usually create very little interest on the part of our customers so don't feel like the Lone Ranger (the marketing people never really understand quality builds brand loyalty, not gimmicks). Just keep doing what you are doing. Getting the kind of info you dish out for $50 / year is like winning the Handyman Lottery. Trace

Thanks, Trace for the words of wisdom.

Dave

(Trace was commenting on the lack of interest in our "Contest" in the May Newsletter.)

Dave Can you tell me what is a ruler in 10th's used for, I bought one in the Sally Anne and went to cut a 12" slice off the Plywood, and it did not fit, so I checked it and it was 12" on the ruler??? Scratched the old head and grabbed my other ruler and found my error was this ruler in 10th's was a longer inch than Imperial Like 1" in 10 ths is 1 3/16 in imperial ??? Beats me and 1' is 10 " ??? The Wife can Beat me at most things, Dan has to hold my hand in computers, but I can make tin Patterns. Ross

(Ross is our cousin - and is a retired sheet metal worker. He refers to the time he brought my wife some tin patterns for his motor cycle that she could use to make him some saddle bags. I laughed at the time! His 3 sons all followed him as tin bashers.)

Hi Ross,

You see 10ths on the steel framing squares, actually quite common. I've never seen 10ths on a tape measure, though. Before the electronic calculators came out, we used 10th of inches and 10th of feet to easily read our stair and roof calculations directly on the framing square. I have a framing square that was passed down to my Dad from his Dad (Grampa Osborne) which has an inch divided into 1/100ths, hardly readable any more. It also has 10ths; 12ths; as well as, 8ths, 16ths, 32nds. I also have a surveyor rod, from Uncle Colin, in 10ths of feet. So before the metric system was used in this country, someone figured out the Imperial system of measurement in length in 10ths of an inch and 10ths of a foot for us.

When I was doing Transit and Level in my apprenticeship, I had to memorize the inch conversions to a decimal foot. Dan prepared an easy table and calculator for this and put them on our site at: http://daveosborne.com/dave/articles/decimal-feet.php

Most modern transits have a calculator built into them.

We don't really need the 10ths and 12ths on tape measures today because the calculator will easily turn fractions into decimals: 23/32 = .71875, for example. With the metric system (meters, centimeters, etc) all the measurements already are in 10ths or decimals.

Interesting.

Dave

(I did a bit more research on this tape and found that Lufkin made Engineer tapes in 10ths of a Foot. Ross mentioned that the inches were 1 3/16 of an Imperial inch. What he thought was an inch was actually a 10th of a foot = 1 3/16". All inches are Imperial or British measure. Metric is the alternative. Even in Britain they have changed over to the Metric System, except for road distances and speeds, and some other items still measured in Imperial.)

Hi Dave I have oak cabinets stained cherry that were installed when the house was built in 1986 and were added-to back in 2005. Structurally they are in great shape. The cherry finish is showing wear and some of the stain is gone. What do you recommend to use to clean the cabinets and restore the cherry finish? I would like to use a wipe-on restore cherry finish, does anything like this exist? If so, what is the brand name. Thanks, Ron

Hi Ron,

It is hard for me to tell what the finish is, either lacquer or polyurethane. I would guess lacquer if professionally done. The pros use lacquer, mainly because it dries so quickly on an assembly line. The homeowner or retro professional would probably use urethane which is a harder, thicker finish.

Stain changes the color and finish protects the wood and stain. You probably need to sand the remaining finish off so that it will be even. That being said, it is very difficult to re-stain something that has a finish over it in some areas and worn off in others. That is why they have strippers to remove the finish completely. Then you can go over the area again with stain, let it dry and then go over the parts that have been sealed deeper with the finish. Refinishing cabinets is not as easy as putting a stain and finish directly to the raw wood the first time. If there is an effective product out there that you can just wipe on and restore the finish and bring the stain up to the original color, all nice and even without a blotchy look, I would like to know about it. There are products that are called Varnish Stains that has a stain mixed into the finish, which probably isn't varnish any more, but urethane. These are difficult to get a perfect even finish with and once dry, they seal the wood so it is even more difficult to get an even stained finish.

A good paint supply outlet, with a knowledgeable clerk may be able to help you with the right products to do a reasonable job. Take a door down to him/her and see what they say.

Dave

Hi Dave, I'd like to extend a hardwood floor from a family room to an adjacent kitchen. The family room was carpeting over sub-flooring before I laid the wood. The kitchen had linoleum. I would think the sub-floor would be at the same height throughout. But it is not. The hardwood and the kitchen sub-floor are already at the same level. This means if I lay wood in the kitchen, it will be 3/4 of an inch above the adjacent room's floor. I've been advised to rip up the 3/4" layer of plywood in the kitchen to put things on an even keel. I've been procrastinating ever since. Is this my best option and are there others? Once I get this worked out, I'll have questions about sanding and a transition piece. Thanks, Trace

Hi Trace,

I'm guessing here, but I suspect the builder put the plywood on the sub-floor in the kitchen to act as an underlay for the lino. Usually, we only need to put 1/4" over the sub-floor for lino. Before you decide to remove this underlay, make sure you know what it is. Depending on the age of your house, this may be an underlay for the lino which is 3/4" thick. Another thing to consider is - was this underlay or subfloor or whatever put on before the cabinets were installed or after. If installed before, this means that the cabinets are sitting on top of this. If this is the case, I would just leave it and put the hardwood on top. Having said that, according to the building code, the max height between floors is 5/8". If you have any heat registers in the kitchen, it would be easy enough to pull out the register vent and look at the edge of the floor, exposed. If you are lucky, it may be a 1/4" underlay installed for the lino, which could be easily removed if put against the cabinets rather than under them. If it is a full 3/4" leave it.

When you put in a transition piece from kitchen floor to family room. Plan on installing a transition strip flush with the hardwood flooring and covering the joint by about 3/4". Use the same flooring for the transition as for the flooring, itself. Cut the strip to length, rip the tongue side off and round it over. The flooring comes to and matches (tongue into groove) the transition strip. When the flooring comes into the transition strip the flooring end tongues go into the transition groove. When parallel, the tongue goes into the transition groove. What happens on the other side of the room when the tongues and grooves don't match?

In this case we cut a spline and slip in between the two grooves. Make this spline out of the hardwood scraps at about 6" lengths. Leave a 3/4" space between splines and an 1/8" clearance between the grooves and rip its thickness so it fits in easily, but snug. The spline normally is about 5/8" wide by just a touch under 1/4" thick.

Hope this helps,

Dave

Thanks, Dave...I'll chew on this and let you know what I come up with. Meanwhile, what are your thoughts on sanding? The wood stock is 3/4 inch white oak. If I had the confidence I could handle a sander I would like to remove the top layer on the old floor. This would allow putting a uniform finish throughout. My one and only experience with a floor sander rented from Depot created valleys in the wood. I shut it down after 5 minutes and went over the entire floor lightly with a palm sander. Not really effective. I also have a hand held band sander. But after scraping paint off the porch with it am convinced it's not the tool for larger spaces. Any advice on sanding hardwood floors or referrals to a publication would be great. I don't mind buying how to books. Thanks, Trace

Hi Trace,

I have never attempted to sand a hardwood floor - installed them, only. They start with a large drum sander to cut the top down all even, then flood fill the entire surface, then sand with a large rotary sander and progressively change sanding discs from coarse to fine. The areas around the walls, etc are sanded with a small rotary sander that can get close up. This creates lots of dust. If you are living in the house, you may want to get a pro to come in and do his thing with his equipment.

I like to do it myself, within reason. The above is the reason I leave sanding a hardwood floor to the pros. By the time you rent the equipment, buy sanding belts, discs, flood fill, masks, the cost is not much less than getting a pro to go in there and do the job. After installing your floor, do you really want to learn how to sand it and risk the chance of messing it all up? There is only 1/4" of finish on hardwood flooring before going into the tongue and groove!

Dave

Feature Article of the Month

(taken from our website: DaveOsborne.com

Remodeling 2: Moisture and Humidity Problems in the Home

Your home's worst enemies are dampness, high humidity and lack of ventilation. I live on the West coast of British Columbia, the banana belt of Canada, or so we boast. With the warmest winter climate in Canada comes the problem of moisture infiltrating our homes. Don't despair, however, for every home improvement problem has a solution. In this article, I'll discuss ways in which the average homeowner can attend to moisture and humidity problems in the home, without spending a fortune.

When it's time for an exterior paint job, take a close look at the caulking around the house. Places like the wood trim around windows and doors, on corner board joints where they form a 90 degree corner and around vents. Anywhere you notice a joint opening up, caulk it up.

Some good home improvement news is the types of caulking the industry has developed over the past few years. My choice is an acrylic latex caulking with silicon added for adhesion. These caulks are paintable and come in various colours as well as clear. Remember, they can be painted, and should be painted for added protection.

Caulking, for those not familiar with this operation, is applied with a gun, pushed into the joint and smoothed with your finger. Use a damp rag for clean up and keep your finger wet. Pick a warm day without chance of showers for 24 hours.

Now that you have secured the envelope of your house with caulking, let's go inside and see how many home improvement problems we can solve. Let's start with the kitchen and bathrooms, the highest humidity areas in the house. How many cooks in the household actually take the effort to turn the range hood fan on while cooking? I cannot emphasize enough the importance of turning that switch on when using the stove or oven. If you noticed a hole in the side of your house where the rain could run in, wouldn't you close it up? Moisture enters your kitchen, if you don't turn the fan on, where does it go? Look on the inside of the windows, that water's from moisture inside the home condensing on the cool window surface. It may be coming through the exterior envelope, through the windows or other places. We'll discuss these later, but most of it is probably coming from moisture created inside your home.

Do you have a good operating fan in the ceiling of each bathroom? Contrary to popular belief, the fan is not in there just to remove hubby's foul odours while sitting on the throne. Turn it on when taking a shower or bath and leave it on until the mirror clears. You can get timer switches that turn the fan off after a time.

In recent years they have developed de-humidifier switches that turn your bathroom fan on when it senses humidity. This is actually included as part of the Building Code in some jurisdictions for new construction.

If your fan is too noisy you can easily install a quieter one, there are many models to choose from.

I've replaced entire walls where there had been so much moisture in a shower room that the drywall literally turned to mush and the studs were black with mold. Those house owners weren't stupid. It's just that no one had warned them. After they saw the mushy drywall they insisted I install a bathroom fan, and rightly so.

Let's go down to the basement. Is your basement a storage area or is it finished? Do you have your concrete walls strapped and covered? Are there boxes of treasures stored down there that you haven't looked at for awhile? Are the sides of the boxes damp? Pay particular attention to those boxes placed tight up against the basement concrete wall or other outside walls.

Concrete is particularly bad for being cold and damp. Any moisture in the air will condense on it and collect on any thing else tight against concrete. The simple home improvement solution is not to pile your boxes tight to the outside walls. Leave about three inches of space for air to move around and dry that dampness out. The long term solution is to strap concrete walls with 2x4's, then apply insulation, vapour barrier and even drywall or panelling.

When storing boxes on a concrete floor put blocks of 2x4's or 2x6's under them. The idea is that air movement dissipates dampness.

If you have a crawl space, check it out periodically by looking for evidence of moisture or mold.

Is the basement floor dirt rather than concrete? You can cover the dirt with vapour barrier grade 6 mil poly. In new construction, crawl space floors are covered with poly then a skim coat of about 2" concrete is poured over it.

When the warmer weather comes, open up the crawl space vents. Your nose will usually warn you of mildew or mold growing in the crawl space or basement when you smell that 'musky' odour. I felt sorry for a young couple who were trying to sell their older house. The realtor called me to go and inspect the crawl space, being mainly concerned about no concrete footings to support a beam down there. Well, I stuck my head in the access, getting ready to crawl in for a closer inspection when the musty smell hit me.

I could see that there was only about 12" clearance below the floor joists to the damp mold covered dirt. I slowly backed out, wiped the cobwebs off my hat and promptly apologized that I didn't really want to crawl on my belly under their house to work on a missing concrete footing. I guess the look on my face was really a clearer indication of my feelings. They said they totally understood. You don't have to let your crawl space get that bad, of course. If you check it each Spring you can easily maintain it so it doesn't turn into a home improvement nightmare.

My son-in-law and daughter bought an old house that had been used as a rental house by his family for years. Well, the day came for him to venture down into the crawl space for an inspection. Poor Mario didn't know what to expect, but he was prepared for the worst. My daughter took a picture of him before he went down to his doom. He was wearing a tuque pulled down over his ears, a heavy plaid shirt duct taped to his wrists, old jeans duct taped to his steel toed work boots and carrying a shovel. He said he was ready for rats, spiders, cobwebs or anything else that lived down there. Luckily, he discovered a dry, rodent and pest free crawl space even though it had a dirt floor. This house was in the interior of BC where there's a drier climate than what I'm used to on the west coast.

One of the easiest home improvement problems to avoid, yet for some reason I see all the time, is topsoil overlapping the bottom row of siding on the house. There should be a minimum of six inches of concrete foundation wall showing below your siding or stucco. Dirt that is on wood or stucco will trap moisture and rot and if left long enough will get into the structure of the walls and rot those, too. I've seen this many times and repaired it many times.

I hope I've stressed the importance of air movement and the expulsion of moisture inside and outside of your home. Turn that fan on, let air get around your basement and crawl space and caulk up the exterior joints that need it.

One last home improvement tip. When buying an older house, pay that inspector his dues. He'll give you a report of what needs attention and your offer on the house can be based on this report.

Almost the End

Our Feature Article of the Month, starts with this issue on a Five Part Series on How to Build a House. Hope you checkout our site for this and other How to Do It articles.

Thanks for your emails this month.

If you need advice on your projects at work or home, please become a member of our website, then send me an email. Check out our website! http://daveosborne.com

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Thanks for all your support.


Dave

(Ask Dave) (About Dave)



Your source for building tips, woodworking & furniture plans, house plans and building advice directly from Dave...

Hi, I'm Dave Osborne. With over 50 years experience as a journeyman carpenter, foreman and contractor in heavy construction I enjoyed working with apprentices and sharing the tricks of the trade that others shared with me. Now I get emails from Members all over the world and we include many of my answers in our Free Monthly Newsletters. Some of my answers include drawings and instructions specific to a project, but may also answer your questions. I use correct construction terminology, so you can confidently inform your building supply dealers or contractors exactly what you need.

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